The first Green MP?

An excellent article in today's Independent following Keith Taylor around Brighton Pavillion, the no.1 Green Party target seat. There's a real chance that we'll make the breakthrough this time and as we've seen on councils up and down the country and in the Scottish Parliament - once people elect one Green, they tend to elect more.

College Hustings

An excellent lunchtime hustings at the Finsbury Park campus of City and Islington college. There was strong support from all candidates for the local newspaper's campaign to stop the deportation of the college's star student to Liberia.

No surprises really, but the Tory candidate did get heckled and booed when she tried to claim that her party isn't racist. Does she think that we haven't seen their billboards and press adverts?

I spent the afternoon and evening out canvassing. I'm now regularly getting stopped in the street by people telling me they're going to vote for me and wishing me luck.

The day ended on a very sad note as I have just found out that a cyclist was killed in a collision with a lorry on Drayton Park this morning.

10 best ways to waste a councillor's time

When deciding that I really did want give up my evenings and weekends to become a local councillor, one of my inspirations was Jonathan Myerson's excellent Guardian column about his experiences as a councillor, Lambeth Talk.

Today's column, 10 best ways to waste a councillor's time, seems designed to put off aspirant councillors, but I feel strangely re-inspired by it. He gives the impression that being a councillor can be a thankless task, endlessly trying to solve impossible problems - but I know from his previous columns and, more importantly, from Green councillors I've spoken to around the country, that there is a huge satisfaction in helping people solve the kind of seemingly small problems which can make a huge difference to your quality of life.

As we enter the last week of the campaign I've taken some of my annual leave from work so that I can devote my full attention to making sure that Highbury West has a Green councillor on May the 5th.

Greenpeace protesters scale Prescott's roof

I listened with extra interest to the breakfast-time news today as someone I work with went off yesterday to take part in a Greenpeace action and I was keen to know what they were up to. As you probably saw or heard, they were installing solar panels on John Prescott's roof to help him play his part in reducing CO2 emmissions.

Franz Ferdinand play for Greens

Not only has our Party Election Broadcast been filmed by Alex Cox, but it has just been announced that the soundtrackis being provided by Franz Ferdinand.

Private deals block Jamie's school dinners

Proper school meals hit the headlines again today in the Guardian. The Guardian article mentions the Scolarest contract in Islington schools which is the subject of a local Unison campaign to bring school meals back in house. I have signed up to support this campaign which is completely in line with Green policies of high quality local food for schools democratic control of education rather than contracting out to private companies.

Road safety

I was out this afternoon at the junction of Tollington Road and Hornsey Road, where Transport for London have promised to improve the pedestrian crossing, following our campaign last year. Whilst discussing how dangerous the crossing currently is, we witnessed a cyclist being knocked from his bike as a car swang round the corner.

Fortunately the cyclist was uninjured, but it did emphasise not just how dangerous the crossing is, but also the dangers caused by the gyratory system which has turned Tollington Road into a racetrack. The works on the pedestrian crossing can't start soon enough. And our long-running campaign to restore Tollington Road to two-way working will need to step up a gear once the election is over.

Show of Respect?

I've just noticed that Respectwatch have switched their blog to use the same green-tinted blogger template as me - is this coincidence or a subtle hint?

Labour are getting worried

You can always tell when traditional politicians are getting worried - they stop talking about their own plans and start attacking the opposition. And Labour are very worried in Highbury West. Their leaflet contains no less than five articles attacking their opponents and only two talking about their own policies. As is usual with this kind of negative politics, the attacks have little grounding in reality.

It is interesting that Labour have chosen to attack us on education. Perhaps they fear that our plans to increase education spending, scrap tution fees, improve pupil teacher ratios and concentrate classroom time on learning rather than testing will be more popular than their own ideas. This is after all the party that privatised Islington's Local Education Authority and school meals, and the party which allows private companies to run state schools teaching creationism rather than science.

The Green Party on the other hand would end the involement of private companies in the running of our schools - education should be for learning, not for profit. And Greens would reduce the amount of testing and league tables, putting the money into improving education for all pupils, not just those attending selective or private schools.

Housmans Bookshop

I took a night off from campaigning to wear another of my hats and chair a meeting of the board of Housmans Bookshop. It was pleasing to note that Chris Rose's book How to Win Campaigns, which was launched at Housmans last week, got a two page feature in yesterday's Green edition of the Indepedent, which also featured an interview with Darren Johnson.

FBU support Green candidate

Great news that the FBU have chosen to support Darren Johnson in Lewisham because he was the only member of the London Fire Authority to vote against cuts in fire engine numbers in inner city areas like Islington. The other parties have all jumped on this bandwagon, but it is good to see our support being recognised and reciprocated.

"Vote Green" says Monbiot

Voting LibDem sends a mixed message to the government says George Monbiot in his Guardian column today.

By choosing the Lib Dems, you are sending an equivocal signal. Are you voting for them because you think Blair is too rightwing, or because you fear old Labour might resurface? Are you choosing them because you are a liberal Tory who detests Howard, or is it because you can't make up your mind, and they represent the middle position? There are, in other words, too many reasons for voting Lib Dem. Your voice is lost in the noise of conflicting intentions, and your decision becomes unintelligible. Whoever takes power after the next election cannot be sure why the votes fell the way they did.

If, on the other hand, you were to vote Green ... you would send an unequivocal signal about the kind of politics you are rejecting and the kind of politics you are embracing.

Progress

Another good day canvassing yesterday - there's a really positive feeling on the doorstep that Islington will have its first Green councillor on May the 5th.

There are more Green posters up in Highbury West than all the other parties combined and more are going up every day. I keep coming across LibDem voters who are planning to vote Green tactically because they recognise that the LibDems have no chance in Highbury West. But what is surprising is the reaction of the "Corbyn Greens".

This is our name for the group of ex-Labour voters who vote Green at every election, except the General Election. However, this time a significant number are telling us that however much they respect Jeremy Corbyn, they can't bring themselves to put their cross next to any Labour candidate this time and they'll be voting Green in both the General Election and the by-election.

It looks like we may be on track for our best ever General Election result as well as our first councillor on May the 5th.

6,000 Rover workers face redundancy

The Rover saga looks like it's coming to an end with the Guardian reporting 6,000 reduncancies.

What makes me so angry about this is the persistent lack of vision from both Labour and Tory governments. Rather than using state subsidies to prop up industries based on obselete technology we could have been investing in the technologies that will dominate the 21st century. Instead Germany and Denmark have stolen a march on us and are now the world leaders in producing solar panels and wind turbines, while we are locked in a race to the bottom trying to compete with the Chinese by cutting jobs and lowering the pay and conditions of those who remain.

If governments of either party had taken the threat of climate change seriously in the 1990s and invested in renewable energy, we would now have profitable manufacturing industries, providing jobs and exports, to take the place of what were once flagship companies like Rover.

British engineering was once the envy of the world and could be again if the government took a long-term view and invested in the kinds of technology that everyone will need if we are to cut energy usage to a sustainable level.

I had hoped that my union the Transport & General Workers Union would be looking to the future, following a commitment from Jack Dromey, when he was standing for his current post of Deputy General Secretary, that the union would work with the Green Party to promote sustainable industry.

However, it seems that the links between the unions and the Labour Party are as strong as ever, no matter how many times Labour betrays the trust of working people in this country.

Polls Apart 2005

Scope are again running their "Polls Apart" survey on the accessibility of polling stations.

You can download a survey form from their website and they use the evidence you give them to improve polling stations and make democracy accessible to everyone.

"You have the best ties"

Back to College Green for the launch of the London campaign. Almost all of our 50 London candidates were there, the highgest number of candidates we've ever stood in London. The staged photo is a line of candidates holding posters which spell out "Vote Green".

The Times photographer spends most of his time trying to catch people holding the letters in the wrong order or spelling out other words. He also takes a lot of pictures of my tie and tells me that we're much better sports than the other parties, whose media managers are constantly trying to stop him getting the pictures he wants of candidates relaxing between the staged shots.

Manifesto launch

More good coverage in the national media for yesterday's General Election Manifesto launch. And a lot of positive comments on the BBC website.

Purity or power?

There's an excellent editorial in today's Guardian about the power shift within the Party - from the unelectable "purists", who care more about theory than action, to those who are serious not only about Green politics, but also about getting elected to positions where we can implement Green policies.

The Guardian are wrong, however, to suggest that it is necessary to abandon local autonomy in order for more Greens to get elected. In fact it is our autonomy that enables local parties such as Islington to be sensitive to local issues. Not for us the daily press release from head office with a few blanks to fill in the name of the constituency. Our campaigns are run by local activists based on local knowledge. It is precisely because Greens do politics differently that we are about to elect our first Islington councillor in Highbury West on 5th May.

Posters

Another good day's canvassing yesterday, Green posters are spreading across the ward and I've still not seen a single opposition poster.

I met the Conservative General Election candidate who was out leafleting. She was gracious enough to admit that they have no chance of winning here and kind enough say she hoped I'd win. If only all Conservatives were like that.

Local press

I'm the only candidate quoted in the article about the by-election in the Gazette. I'm profiled in today's High & I and get a couple of mentions in the Tribune.

Labour have finally selected a candidate, but not early enough to make all the local papers, so that's two editions of the biggest circulation local paper that they've missed coverage in - unbelievable, considering that they chose the timing.

press coverage of yesterday's launch

My bike illustrates Ann Treneman's sketch in the Times. And Paul Ingram whizzing past the Houses of Parliament on one of the poster bikes accompanied Simon Hogart's sketch in print editions of the Guardian.

There are also good articles on BBC News, politics.co.uk and the Independent.

People, Planet, Peace

I was down at Westminster this morning blog/for the launch of the three national campaign themes - People, Planet, Peace.

There was a fantastic mood on College Green with more journalists than I've ever seen at a Green Party event - including the sketch writers from the Times and the Guardian.

Despite the presence of the promo-bikes, there was a lot of interest in my Brompton folding bike and I was kept busy riding back and forth and folding up my bike for the photographers.

A good weekend in Highbury West

The first weekend of the by-election campaign is over and I've just sent our first leaflet off to the printers. Most of the weekend has been taken up with canvassing and we're getting a very good response on the doorsteps. We're the only credible party to have declared our candididate so far and in addition to the numerous expressions of positive support, I've had both Conservatives and LibDems saying they'll vote tactically to get rid of Labour.

Our posters are starting to appear around the ward, but even the outgoing Labour councillor hasn't got round to putting up a poster yet. The weather has been fantastic all weekend, but forecasts suggest we'll getting very wet during evening canvassing sessions this week.

Local press coverage

The first coverage of the by-election made today's papers, the announcement having come too late for yesterday's Gazette. The High & I just ran a notice that Mary Creagh had resigned and decided not to mention candidates. Interestingly, although Labour called the by-election, and were the only party to know for sure that they'd be doing so, they will be the last to select a candidate - now there's forward planning for you.

The Tribune ran a story about the two declared candidates - me and a candidate campaigning against road safety measures and the CPZ in his street (we don't yet know if the real tories will stand aside to support him).

affordable homes for all?

Labour today announced their plans for affordable homes for all, but there are two major flaws.

The first is the plan to create a million more homeowners - it sounds great in principle, but the effect a million less homes available to rent. And affordable rented accommodation is already in very short supply in areas like Highbury.

The second problem is that their pledge to build new homes doesn't match their record over the past eight years. As Polly Toynbee and David Walker note in their assessment of Labour's record Better or Worse:

under Labour "fewer homes were being built, both private and social, than for years. Not surprisingly, the number of families accepted by councils as homeless and in need of emergency accommodation more than doubled from 40,000 families in 1997 to 90,000 in 2004 - and these were only those at the extremity of housing need."

"Spiralling house prices meant fewer people now moved out of the shrinking amount of council and social housing to make way for others because fewer of them could now afford to make the jump into buying their own homes."

Green councillors across the country are securing high levels of affordable housing in new developments - in fact a landmark case won when the Greens co-ran Oxford City Council means that local authorities can now force developers to include 50% affordable housing in new developments.

As a Green councillor I'll be working for a 50% afforable housing target in Islington.

Guess who Prints the BNP's Newsletter?

I found this article about a group of racist hypocrites masquerading as a political party on the website of The Muslim Directory. The story was originally published in the Daily Telegraph.

The far right British National Party, whose leader Nick Griffin was recently arrested on suspicion of inciting racial hatred after he denounced Islam as a "wicked, vicious faith", is secretly using an Arab-owned company to print its monthly newspaper, The Telegraph revealed.

The Voice of Freedom, the BNP's official publication, which regularly describes Islam as a "dangerous" religion, is published at a printing works in Essex owned by a company in Saudi Arabia and staffed almost entirely by Muslims.

The disclosure, following a Telegraph investigation, will be seen by many as evidence of the BNP's hypocrisy and will stun even its own members...

You can read the whole article here.